faubi got her first kill, by a sneaky grab-attack combination catching heuristically_alone's 5 off-guard.emlightened and faubi continue to carefully maneuver around each other, as do heuristically_alone and Soupspoon, but no kills there this turn.Soupspoon's 2 is finding itself increasingly out of the way.

If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, we have at least to consider the possibility that we have a small aquatic bird of the family Anatidae on our hands. –Douglas Adams

Confused, for a moment, about who killed who. Luckily, by the respective maps being on separate pages which nicely scrolled to near identical positions without me even trying, doing back/forward in the browser revealed the movements.

Not my move, just me blathering about game notation mechanics Anyone may read this, it's just quite verbose and not actually important, so Spoilering it to stop it interfering with things,

Spoiler:

By having a new piece atop the old one's point of demise, the clue as to where it had been was wiped. No obvious way to remedy this.

But it also made me think that Faubi 2's attack-lozenge perhaps would have been more clearly marked upon the post-grab-position perimeter, facing the actual Heury 5 death-spot, rather than from the pre-grab spot from where it was never used, even if it was the point at which the piece was when it was preordained to happen. But I only noticed that because I had no prior involvement in that area and had to work it out from checking both images carefully!.

Maybe that's the markup convention, I must check where it happened before. I know it only applies to Grabbed pieces, because only Grabs move things off-hex prior to any other action taking part that now happens elsewhere but not upon the original coronal 'shadow'. Plain moves have no other coincident actions spent on the departure spot than the move itself and Pushed movements happen after everything else has fired off (or tried to) so do not change the 'spark' indicator between request and actioning.

Naturally, it's likely far easier from the GM POV to mark everything where it is at turn-start, then process it all in strict order, but I'm wondering if a 'departure shadow' version of the original request could be left while the post-Grab position features the original intent in its actual implementation slot.

This second spoiler is a superfluous Move Mechanics pondering, probably already discussed elsewhere.Also viewable by all who care to.

Spoiler:

Also: considering the concept of a game-changing-mechanic by adding a "Rotate" effect. Not sure how far through the Move Order to place it but, when actioned, I'm thinking that any of (up to all six) adjacent slots with a piece in is given a sixth-of-a-turn rotation in a given direction.

(Technically the opposite of that which the Rotating piece does, but if it's an omnidirectional action them you might as well specify the neighbouring effects and assume the central cause is the opposite... Or imagine it as chain-linked, not geartooth-linked. I was going to suggest that neighbouring Rotate tiles would, cancel each other out, but if Rotate is omnidirectional¹ then a Rotated Rotator doesn't actually suffer any side-effects worth speaking of.)

Maybe additive, or at least cancellable. i.e. two (or four or six) Rotations applied to a 'victim' in an opposably-paired manner results in no change. Even if you wouldn't entertain the possibility of two commonly-directioned impulses (or three and one counter-rotating, or four and the remaining two counter-rotating) sending the common target into a ⅓-spin (two sixths'-worths), etc. Good for both a double-'attack' of such interference (if allowed) and also friend/foe attempts to outguess and counter/counter-counter/etc (alongside 'misaiming' a post-Rotate skill on the assumption that a Rotate will happen and present the action back upon the actually intended vector).

I'm thinking the visual markup would be a gradiated shade (appropriately oriented for the rotational direction) of grey upon the 'action' slots. If it's not omnidirectional, just applied to the chosen target vector. If it moves a subsequent move-type around then (re)draw that with the appropriate gradient from washed-out to full to indicate movement. (Eaay to do in GIMP/etc, not actually sure if the newest versions of Paint have gradient support.)

¹ The other option is the far less powerful option of requiring a linear direction and a rotary direction to be specified. It only acts in that (linear) direction (or, like Defend, that and the adjacent edges) in convering the desired (rotational) effect. Then clashes between adjacent pieces' intents would have to be dealt with like the two-stage Grab'n'Get, as well as formalising conflicts/reinforcements of spin upon any given target.

Those two things said (and needing no reply, especially if old-news), I now ought to think about my moves, and not stuff that won't change during this game. Next message, shortly, I imagine!

Ok, this is my actual move, so that it's official that you don't peek into this one when you shouldn't…

Spoiler:

1: Defend Down (two obvious incoming attack vectors that I can't ignore or otherwise counter)2: Move Down (best bet is to move towards being hammer/anvil to Em's anvil/hammer)3: Attack Left-Down (Protect/Attack/possible-Exchange-Of-Pawns, with varying degrees of likliehood)4: Move Up (a Defend may have been expected, or it might end up being a sacrifice, but I'll take the result regardless)5: Move Left-Down (next-turn hammer/anvil counterpart to 321¹, if necessary?)W: Push Left-Down (should be interesting, whatever sacrifice I might have had to endure, so long as Heuri doesn't double-dodge!)

¹ If 321 hadn't already posted a move, whatever it is, I might have side-posted a suggestion that 321#5 grab Rose#4, 321#3 defend against possible attack originally intended upon My#5 and then we can, between us, hammer attacks down on the mutual enemy unless he was prescient enough to Defend L-D. But if I were 321 acting on my own (whether or not wanting to attack real!Me) I might have done some Pushing with W, wirh several strategic options for the other pieces.

Gotta love those grabs. It'd be interesting to tally up how much each player used which move at the end.

██████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████"Therefore it is in the interests not only of public safety but also public sanity if the buttered toast on cats idea is scrapped, to be replaced by a monorail powered by cats smeared with chicken tikka masala floating above a rail made from white shag pile carpet."

██████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████"Therefore it is in the interests not only of public safety but also public sanity if the buttered toast on cats idea is scrapped, to be replaced by a monorail powered by cats smeared with chicken tikka masala floating above a rail made from white shag pile carpet."

Could do. Especially as I've similarly separately spoilered stuff recently. (I'm a bit worried I'm just doing it more for self-aggrandisement, but it may entertain everyone else, and you lot after it's all done.)

PMing players who have not yet acted for them to move. Deadline is 23:59 UTC on the 6th of August.

If these players submit moves after this, even if I haven't posted yet, there is no guarantee that the moves will be considered (but they may be, depending on whether I've started making the new board).

Starting the next turn, I will also be stricter with deadlines for moves being submitted.

Also, due to me being a player you no longer need to include either patzer or the moderator when PMing other players about the game.

I may post the next turn before the deadline if all players have submitted moves.

(wow much bold)

██████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████"Therefore it is in the interests not only of public safety but also public sanity if the buttered toast on cats idea is scrapped, to be replaced by a monorail powered by cats smeared with chicken tikka masala floating above a rail made from white shag pile carpet."

What's the accepted way of handling drop-outs? Apart from waitlists¹, I can see them just vanishing from play or (say) the counters reallocated (dewizarded, if necessary) by a paused round of horse-trading or just random lot. Various problems with each method, but also some interesting results.

Though I really hope the current incumbents aren't quitting. And anybody who isn't currently in an alliance with me is welcome to suggest one to prevent my inevitable decline at the hands of everyone else who I hear plotting and conspiring against me! to receive my blind luck newbie infinite wisdom in return!!!

¹ Perhaps with an immunity incentive? "If you don't use an offensive skill, yourself, you're immune to that skill being used against you for your first turn." Or more creative than that!

Both h_a and faubi thanked me for reminding them, but neither seem to have posted yet. Huh.

If I don't receive a move, the player takes no action. If this happens for three turns in a row, or a player asks to stop playing, then anyone not playing is free to take over, on a first-come-first-serve basis. If no one offers, I'll probably decide what to do then (or soon before) (in particular, different solutions may work better or worse depending on whether we're early-game or late-game).

██████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████"Therefore it is in the interests not only of public safety but also public sanity if the buttered toast on cats idea is scrapped, to be replaced by a monorail powered by cats smeared with chicken tikka masala floating above a rail made from white shag pile carpet."

Rosewinsall has decided to drop out of playing. Does anyone want to replace her?

██████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████"Therefore it is in the interests not only of public safety but also public sanity if the buttered toast on cats idea is scrapped, to be replaced by a monorail powered by cats smeared with chicken tikka masala floating above a rail made from white shag pile carpet."

If you can, try to get your move in by the deadline (90 minutes). If you can't, as you've just replaced a player, you've got 24 hours. Okay that was quick.

██████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████"Therefore it is in the interests not only of public safety but also public sanity if the buttered toast on cats idea is scrapped, to be replaced by a monorail powered by cats smeared with chicken tikka masala floating above a rail made from white shag pile carpet."

Commentary:emlightened's 2 and faubi's 4 continue their duel to the death, with no end in sight.emlightened appears to be regrouping, killing a piece of patzer's in the process.faubi scores her second kill aginst heury's wizard whilst it's distracted grabbing the 1.

Attachment:

Spoiler:

██████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████"Therefore it is in the interests not only of public safety but also public sanity if the buttered toast on cats idea is scrapped, to be replaced by a monorail powered by cats smeared with chicken tikka masala floating above a rail made from white shag pile carpet."

Deadline is 23:59 UTC, 9th August. I may post sooner if all players' moves have been submitted.

Restrictions on editing moves close to the deadline:You may correct/overwrite your moves, but not in the last 12 hours before the deadline (unless you submitted your own move under an hour before editing it) and not over an hour after everyone has posted their moves. (This is to prevent last-minute move changes based on another player not moving hence not defending themself.)

██████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████"Therefore it is in the interests not only of public safety but also public sanity if the buttered toast on cats idea is scrapped, to be replaced by a monorail powered by cats smeared with chicken tikka masala floating above a rail made from white shag pile carpet."

Just to note that, though it hasn't obviously changed since last turn, me and Heury's minute huey offset (also saturation and luminosity not that far adrift) is starting to giving me eye-strain working out exactly what we're doing.

Moving later, when I'm not parked in a layby (might be easier indoors, rather than with bright blue early evening sky affecting my (relative) screen brightness and colour-contrast).

Soupspoon wrote:Just to note that, though it hasn't obviously changed since last turn, me and Heury's minute huey offset (also saturation and luminosity not that far adrift) is starting to giving me eye-strain working out exactly what we're doing.

Congrats on discovering the minigame

██████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████"Therefore it is in the interests not only of public safety but also public sanity if the buttered toast on cats idea is scrapped, to be replaced by a monorail powered by cats smeared with chicken tikka masala floating above a rail made from white shag pile carpet."

Soupspoon wrote:Just to note that, though it hasn't obviously changed since last turn, me and Heury's minute huey offset (also saturation and luminosity not that far adrift) is starting to giving me eye-strain working out exactly what we're doing.

would suggest to emlightened that maybe your hue should become more yellowy.

If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, we have at least to consider the possibility that we have a small aquatic bird of the family Anatidae on our hands. –Douglas Adams

(Oh, misread soup's post first time around as just being due to the complex movements, not the similar colours. That isn't a minigame.)

██████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████"Therefore it is in the interests not only of public safety but also public sanity if the buttered toast on cats idea is scrapped, to be replaced by a monorail powered by cats smeared with chicken tikka masala floating above a rail made from white shag pile carpet."

And here I was thinking that we were each being personally supplied with boards in which our colour and our nearest rival was dynamically being reshaded to be the closest possible match, and perhaps the order of complaints dictates who wins and who loses!

Anyway, it looks better/slightly more distinctive under unnatural light (although identically backlit in both instances, apart from auto-adjusted brightness). Still close, but I knew that already. It just surprised me, earlier today.

Off in the top-left Rose/Patzer used the only real defence I could see working against 321. It's likely that more such consolidation will go on, so (against the possibility of being atracked first) I'm moving in to pinch up against Patzer. I still have no quarrel with 321 (not that I have much I can do pre-emptively) and so I'm taking my option on repositioning for Patzer still. Though it may be awkward if those pieces are stranded in the Em/321 vice, later on. Another reason to perhaps not syay toomdeep, my original ideas no longer being relevent. (I had considered sending #4 up there, this turn, but still have other needs for it where it is.)

Down below, it's simpler but still not simple. First thoughts waw for 4 to Grab 1 as 1 grabs Heury#4, reposition and isolate Heury. Second thoughts were to leave Heury fighting Faubi (good for my eventual contact, good for Em's Faubi-battles). I decided to compromise and only grab Heury, not retreat myself (not #1, anyway!) I could boringly Defend against 2 (or ineffectually attack DL), but it gets nothing done. Trying to reposition the piece (if the defense still applies, as it could, there's nothing to do) assume that this is attackable and also presume the possibility of an original attack being re-aimed by my own hand.

It'll either work or it'll end up in failure (maybe loss) but shake things up regardless.

██████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████"Therefore it is in the interests not only of public safety but also public sanity if the buttered toast on cats idea is scrapped, to be replaced by a monorail powered by cats smeared with chicken tikka masala floating above a rail made from white shag pile carpet."

Sure, heury, but it'll take about two turms. (Push happens last in the move order.)

██████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████"Therefore it is in the interests not only of public safety but also public sanity if the buttered toast on cats idea is scrapped, to be replaced by a monorail powered by cats smeared with chicken tikka masala floating above a rail made from white shag pile carpet."

Commentary:emlightened's 2 and faubi's 4 continued their duel to the death, with a grab-battle resulting in the death of faubi's 4.heury's isolated 2 finally falls victim to Soupspoon.threetwoone's pieces just. Stand still. Don't move, besides grabbing and attacking.It seems that alliances really do pay off - the three players who haven't lost a piece also publically entered an alliance in the first turn.

Attachment:

Spoiler:

Deadline is 23:59 UTC on the 14th August.

██████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████"Therefore it is in the interests not only of public safety but also public sanity if the buttered toast on cats idea is scrapped, to be replaced by a monorail powered by cats smeared with chicken tikka masala floating above a rail made from white shag pile carpet."